U.K Defence Minister says Russian cyberattacks on critical infrastructure could kill thousands

Russia could launch cyberattacks against the U.K.'s critical infrastructure that would kill thousands of people, British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Friday.

“The plan for the Russians won't be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough, and off Brighton Beach,” he told the Telegraph.“They are going to be thinking, ‘How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?”

Williamson warned that the cyber-active nation state could hurt the U.K. by executing cyberattacks to “damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country.'”